


walked into the room, you know you made my eyes burn

by chrysallis_thenum



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Reggie Mantle Being an Asshole, i tried to make a rebel without a cause reference but I've never watched that movie, jughead doesn't make movie references sorry, jughead is a ballerina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29531220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrysallis_thenum/pseuds/chrysallis_thenum
Summary: Jughead Jones is the only boy in school who does ballet. Sweet Pea, the town's delinquent boy and leader of the young Southside Serpents, falls in love with him.
Relationships: Jughead Jones/Sweet Pea
Comments: 8
Kudos: 35





	walked into the room, you know you made my eyes burn

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by snarkhead's "he was a punk. he did ballet. what more is there to say?" moodboard (i'll link at the end of my work because i still haven't figured out how to link in these notes lol). ngl i feel like this could have been better :/ like i did not capture the ballerina jughead and gang leader sweet pea essence enough. i hope i do it justice though because that was a beautiful moodboard.
> 
> Title is from Blue Jeans by Lana del Rey

Jones is a mystery. He’s all gloomy with his dark clothes and dingy beanie, but his eyes twinkle like coloured diamonds when he smiles. Jones glares and hisses when Sweet Pea and Fangs are in his general vicinity, but he’s docile and friendly when Toni jabs his arms. Jones talks like every single thing around him is offensive, but holds himself like a deer striding through a grass field. 

Jones is a mystery and Sweet Pea is drawn to him like a starved wolf to a bleeding rabbit.

In the one month of transferring to Riverdale High, Jones has become the center of Sweet Pea’s continuous attention. At first, Sweet Pea would have said it’s only because FP personally asked him to watch over his kid and Sweet Pea’s just doing his fucking job. Now he doesn’t bother anymore. He watches Jones because Jones is pretty, and elegant, and his two front teeth catch his bottom lip when he smiles because they’re a little big, and he always wears and clings to his old grey beanie all seconds of the day, and his lips tilt into a default pout whenever he goes into his thoughts undisturbed, and he lifts his pinky finger when he drinks and it’s always so funny and endearing to see because FP does the same thing. 

Sweet Pea doesn’t know when he started taking notice of these little things, nor does he know when he started feeling light and fluttery whenever he sees Jones at the end of the hall, or wanting to push Jones up a locker and kiss him silly. It’s ridiculous. Even with taking the fact that Jones hates him for some reason into consideration. 

Well, it’s not just him, Sweet Pea learns, it’s the Serpents. Jones hates the Serpents with some deep-seated passion, so much so that he spat on the offer Sweet Pea made to protect him from the other gangs. That was on the first day of transfer and it pissed Sweet Pea off so much he almost knocked Jones out if it weren’t for Toni and Fangs holding him back. 

“Give him time,” Toni said. “He’s probably confused about this. Lived on the Northside his entire life, remember?” 

It pissed Sweet Pea off, Jones pissed him off. But he had a job and he wasn’t about to let FP down, no matter how vehemently Jones seems to be avoiding any and all Serpents in school. So Sweet Pea switches up their plans to just observe. Watch Jones and everyone around him, do not engage unless they had to. This works for both the teen Serpents and Jones. 

And watching him Sweet Pea enjoys. Jones is real easy on the eyes. Cute moles all over his face and neck, green eyes that goes hypnotisingly well with his dark hair and bushy brows, adorably pointy nose, sharp pouty lips, his tall slender figure that seem to just gracefully glide and move with every step he takes, his long limbs always so smooth and elegant when Jones moves them. Everything about him is just pretty and soft and elegant and Sweet Pea can’t seem to tear his eyes away from him. 

Which fucking sucks because Jones doesn’t even want to gaze at Sweet Pea’s general direction. 

It got better though, their surveillance, because Toni is in the Blue and Gold as their photographer and she spends half the week with Jones, which resulted in them somehow being friends. Jones greets Toni whenever they pass by and sits with her in classes. It’s a great upgrade for them, but Sweet Pea doesn’t push down the slight hot rumble in his chest whenever he sees Jones smile and wave at Toni and blatantly ignore Sweet Pea and Fangs, who are always right next to her.

“It’s because of FP,” Toni told Sweet Pea once, about three weeks into their transfer. “He blames the Serpents for FP's spiral.” 

“What the fuck?” Sweet Pea had shouted. It had sounded so absurd. “That makes no fucking sense. FP helped the Serpents.”

“And he left his family in the dust, Sweet Pea,” Toni said. “His mom and sister left and Jones was homeless for a while before the Andrews took him in. FP knew he was homeless and didn’t do shit about it.”

Sweet Pea had been too angry at Jones – over what? Sweet Pea honestly can’t say what specifically. He just remembered feeling angry then. Maybe his rejection, maybe his hostility, maybe his ignorance – to sympathise. He should have though, because he knows how it feels to be abandoned by family, to be left in the dirt to fend for himself. Maybe it was his pride after all that made him ignore Toni and just took the easy option of Jones hating Sweet Pea, hating the Serpents because he’s a pretty asshole who forgot his roots and is now one of the fucking Northsiders. 

He just rolled his eyes. Toni sighed and didn’t say anything else. 

It’s a month after the transfer. The Southside students are getting settled into their new routines and school lives. Sweet Pea and Fangs are on the basketball team. Toni’s in the Blue and Gold. Any gang fights or scuffles happened off school grounds – three Serpents and two Ghoulies got a month’s suspension after a fight broke out in the cafeteria and no Serpents got involved with anything like that on school grounds after that. 

Basketball practices are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays after school. On Fridays their practice overlaps with football practice, which meant some players alternated between practices every other week. It’s on a Friday that he sees Jones in front of the football field after practice. 

Sweet Pea and Fangs are walking to their bikes, bags over their shoulders, and laughing over something. They’ve changed into their extra clothes after a shower and their jackets are in their bags. They’re close to the football field, where their bikes are across from, and he sees Jones standing around there. Except Jones’ hair is wet and he isn’t wearing his beanie, and he’s in some black leggings and the black shirt he wore in school. Sweet Pea has to pause and take in Jones’ figure, or, his legs. 

Jones isn’t as skinny as Sweet Pea thought he was. No, he’s got some muscles on his thighs that ripple and bulge as Jones shifts on his feet. He also has some nice looking ass from what Sweet Pea can see – Jones’ shirt falls on his hips and covers half his ass. Sweet Pea looks at Jones’ face and he can see some shade of red on his cheeks, and Sweet Pea thinks it’s either from embarrassment (and he doesn’t think it’s likely considering Jones is standing all alone and he doesn’t look uncomfortable, and Jones usually flushes his entire face, not just his cheeks) or, and he can’t believe he’s about to say this about Jones, exercise. Looking at his damp hair, leggings, and bulging legs, exercising is more likely than Sweet Pea would have thought even five minutes before. 

He’s still staring at Jones, beautiful Jones, when the object of his attention looks up and catches him. Jones freezes, and so does Sweet Pea. Jones shifts his eyes to the rest of Sweet Pea’s body and flushes, for real this time, turning a deep pretty red down to his neck. He looks away and crosses his arms over his chest, almost defensively. 

It took Sweet Pea a second for his mind to catch up. Then he starts to grin. Was Jones… checking him out? 

Yeah, Sweet Pea’s got a nicely built body, thanks. He’s got broad shoulders and muscular arms, both balance and fill his tall body nicely. He’s got nice sturdy thighs himself, too, always makes sure to accentuate them by wearing skinny jeans. This is probably the first time Jones is seeing his arms, though, considering Sweet Pea’s always wearing either his leather or some other jacket in school, so that adorably flustered reaction is totally warranted. 

Sweet Pea doesn’t mind Jones’ reaction, but if Jones hates him so much why would he be attracted to Sweet Pea? Maybe it’s just acknowledging a good thing, Sweet Pea thinks. He wants to go up to Jones, strike up some small chat, flex his biceps some. Jones looks less guarded than he usually is and Sweet Pea definitely wants to take advantage of that. 

“Yo, Jones!” 

Mantle shouts from behind Sweet Pea and Fangs (oh, he almost forgot about Fangs). Jones tenses and glares at Mantle, who’s walking up to them with the usual mean grin he’s got on whenever he’s harassing Jones. 

“Waiting for Andrews like a good little girlfriend?” 

Jones rolls his eyes. “Calling me a girl is so eighth grade, Reggie.” 

“Aw,” Mantle, who’s already caught up with them and is swinging his arm around Jones, coos sarcastically. Jones huffs under the weight and glares at Mantle. Mantle looks at Sweet Pea and Fangs. “Hey, Serpents,” Sweet Pea feels his fists tighten with that nickname, “did you know Jughead here is a pretty little ballerina?” 

Sweet Pea, for some reason, pauses. It’s just ballet. But picturing Jones in tights, his nicely toned body twirling or whatever ballerinas do, Jones pressing his hands and torso on Sweet Pea and lifting a leg up to a horizontal line, Jones bending his body obscenely, Jones in pink eyeshadow and glitter and red lips looking up at him from under his eyelashes. He has to shake those imageries away before he blatantly drools in front of everybody here, especially Jones. 

“Aren’t you tired of that girly thing by now? Oh, or is it some compensation thing because you’re not manly enough to do guy things, so you become like a girl.”

“Reggie, I can wrestle you to the ground and choke you unconscious with my legs.” 

Reggie whistles, “is that some weird sex kink you ballerinas do?”

Jones stares at Mantle, unimpressed. “I don’t know, Reggie. Why don’t we try it out? I’ll see if I can remember not to kill you.” 

Mantle pulls a face, almost like he’s about to spit on Jones and yell about being disgusting, but then he suddenly breaks into a grin and gets his face closer to Jones. Jones pulls away, as much as he can from the way he’s trapped by Mantle, but Mantle pulls him closer and gets his face close to Jones’ cheek. “Careful, Jones, I might love that. Shit, I should have hit you up sooner, huh?” 

Jones’s face twists into a sneer. He shoves Mantle’s chest, but it doesn’t do much because Reggie's bigger than Jones, who's slender and slim and too soft for his own good. “Fuck off, Reggie. Be a creep to someone who’s actually into it.”

Mantle licks his lips, and that’s when Sweet Pea finally intervenes. 

“Get the fuck off him, Mantle.” 

Sweet Pea marches forward and grabs Mantle by his collars. He pulls him away from Jones, who’s stumbling from the sudden unbalance, and gets his face close. 

“Oh, what are you gonna do, Serpent?” Mantle taunts. “Stab me? In school and with the Bulldogs coming out in minutes?”

Sweet Pea scowls. “Maybe I will. Little domestic dogs aren’t so tough, you know?” Sweet Pea flashes his teeth and shoves Mantle off. He scowls at him again. “You mess with Jones again, I’ll show you how the Serpents gobble up puppies for breakfast.” 

Mantle looks like he’s about to do something dumb like try to hit Sweet Pea, but Fangs comes up next to Sweet Pea, arms crossed and frown on his face, and Mantle pauses. He grits his teeth and turns to Jones, who had taken a step back away. 

“Got some bodyguards now, huh, Jughead?” He sneers at Jones. “Guess dirty Southsiders keep each other company.” 

Jones narrows his eyes at Mantle. “Go away, Reggie. Your goons are coming out soon. Don’t wanna be seen in the company of dirty Southsiders, right?”

Mantle walks up to Jones again, and Sweet Pea and Fangs take a step closer. Sweet Pea grumbles out a warning but Mantle ignores them.

“We’ll see, Jones,” Mantle mutters in front of Jones’ face. “Let’s see how long your filthy friends can last playing house here in Riverdale. Remember they’re only here because _we_ let them.”

Jones scoffs. “From the way you’re cowering away from them, Reggie,” he raises an eyebrow, “I doubt they need your generosity.”

Mantle grunts and steps forward like he’s about to hit Jones, and that’s when Sweet Pea and Fangs finally step in. They each grip his shoulders and Sweet Pea grits out, “leave, Mantle. Before you regret it.”

Mantle shoots one last dirty look at Sweet Pea and Fangs before shoving past Jones and to his car. Sweet Pea expected him to wait for the other Bulldogs to come out before leaving, but his engine revs and he drives off. 

Now, between the three of them, it’s quiet. After a few seconds, Jones looks up at him.

“Thanks,” he says. 

Sweet Pea glances at him. Jones is pursing his lips and furrowing his brows, his hands are fiddling uselessly by his sides, and he’s tense. Jones is embarrassed, Sweet Pea realises. He doesn’t hold back a huff, which deepens Jones’ blush. It’s a pretty sight and Jones thanking him is probably never going to happen again, so he might as well milk out the fun while it lasts. 

“Yeah? How did you ever survive Mantle before without us, Jones?”

Jones sighs. “He’s an ass and annoying at worst. Ignoring him does the job,” Jones rolls his eyes. 

Fangs smirks and crosses his arms. “Is that why you kept on pissing him off?”

Jones gives them a little smirk and lifts an eyebrow. “It’s always fun to rile him up when there’s someone else to stop him.” 

Sweet Pea raises an eyebrow at him. “And _we_ were going to stop him for you?” 

“Didn’t you?” 

Jones has a smirk on his lips, looking entirely too confident. Fangs lets out a snort. Sweet Pea has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grinning. Jones is a little shit and you know what, Sweet Pea’s kind of into that. 

“Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, Jones?””

“Jesus,” Sweet Pea hears Fangs sigh next to him. Bold of him to be embarrassed by Sweet Pea’s flirting when he’s pitifully chasing after a Northsider who’s still hung up on his ex who has had a girlfriend since seventh grade. 

Jones does blush at that, a sweet red that goes down to his neck. But other than pursing his lips, Jones doesn’t flinch. Instead, he shrugs and says, “I don’t know. What are you gonna make me do about it, Sweet Pea?”

Sweet Pea does pause at that. Is Jones _flirting_ back? Saying his name all husky and low like that, too, the cheeky boy. 

“Jug!”

It’s Andrews. He’s running to them, hair wet and in fresh clothes. The other football players are all walking behind him. 

“Jug, what’s going on?” He asks. He looks at Jones up and down like he’s trying to find any injuries. Then he turns to Sweet Pea and Fangs. “What did you guys do to him?”

“Calm down, red,” Sweet Pea scoffs, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, we just saved his ass from Mantle,” Fangs says. 

Andrews furrows his brows. He’s frowning and confused. Sweet Pea finds it’s sort of his default setting. “Reggie”? He turns to Jones. “What did Reggie do this time? I swear to God, Jug, I keep telling him to stop bothering you.”

Jones rolls his eyes. “He’s been bothering me since he learned how to talk, Arch. And I’m fine,” Jughead shifts his eyes to Sweet Pea and Fangs, “they got him to leave.”

Andrews stares at Jones, kind of dumbly. “Oh,” he mutters. He turns to Sweet Pea and Fangs, kind of embarrassed. He’s got his brows furrowed and his lips tilted. Andrews also has a really expressive face, Sweet Pea notices. “Uh, thanks.”

Sweet Pea doesn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes at him. “Yeah, why don’t you ask your boyfriend what happened before accusing the Southside, huh?” 

Andrews frowns. “Jug’s not my boyfriend.”

Sweet Pea rolls his eyes again, because of course that’s what he responds to and not the bias. 

“Well you sure act like it,” he says, trying to keep the sarcasm in his voice, but all he’s thinking about right now is holy shit, so Jones _isn’t_ with Andrews? That whole too close to be just bros thing they’ve got going on, Jones staying over with the Andrews, them wearing each other’s shirts sometimes, that was _platonic?_ Jones really was flirting with Sweet Pea?

Andrews, oblivious as ever, tilts his head and says, “no. I’m with Ronnie.” 

“Huh,” was all Sweet Pea could muster from his dumb brain. Before he could stop himself, he’s looking at Jones again, who’s staring at him back with an unreadable expression. He’s frowning a little bit, but more of his thinking frown, the one he’s always got whenever he’s typing on his laptop. 

“Yeah,” Andrews says. 

Sweet Pea thinks Andrew’s brain is getting dumb, too, so he decides to spare them all more awkward conversations and just leave.

“Whatever,” he says. He nods to Fangs and starts walking to their bikes. Andrews and Jones stay standing where they are, staring at them. Sweet Pea wears his helmet and revs his engine. But then he suddenly remembers their conversation before Andrews arrived. So he looks up, right at Jones, who's still staring at him. 

“Hey, Jones! How ‘bout you take me to the Twilight Drive-In and I’ll consider us even?,” he winks. If Jones really was flirting with him then Sweet Pea might as well take that chance. 

Jones furrows his brows like he doesn’t know what Sweet Pea’s talking about, but then he smirks, an eyebrow raised. “With your bike? That has no radio?”

Sweet Pea leans to rest his elbows on his bike’s handles. “Fangs has a truck.” 

“What the hell, dude?” Fangs exclaims next to him. 

“What, do you need it?”

Fangs frowns. “No,” he grumbles out.

Sweet Pea turns back to Jones, grinning. “Maybe I’ll even go to the Northside to pick you up, Jones, if I feel extra generous.”

Jones smirks. “Five, then,” he says, before turning and walking away to, probably, Andrews’ truck. Decisive, like of course Sweet Pea is going to come to the Andrews’ house to pick Jones up for their date. 

Sweet Pea takes a second to watch him leave. Back straight, shoulders beautifully angled, long legs. Sweet Pea had thought Jones was just some pretentious kid trying hard to fit in with the Northside kids, but maybe Jones is just pretentious. And has really nice legs. And the best face Sweet Pea’s seen in Riverdale. And does ballet – _that_ he’s never going to forget. He’s going to ask Jones to wear a tutu for him someday if they work out, Sweet Pea swears it. 

***

[Snarkhead's moodboard](https://snarkhead.tumblr.com/post/643030004640481280/he-was-a-punk-he-did-ballet-what-more-is-there) on tumblr


End file.
